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The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) has just released a new case study on a successful model for reducing solar costs through collaborative purchasing by public agencies. This case study, “A Model of Collaborative Solar Purchasing: The Alameda County Renewable Energy Procurement Project,” is available on CESA’s website at: http://www.cesa.org/assets/2014-Files/RREP-Case-Study.

For municipalities and local public agencies, there are three main challenges to installing solar energy systems: high transaction costs, a steep learning curve, and fragmented regional demand. The process can be confusing and expensive, requiring more time and energy than a single agency could afford. Collaborative solar purchasing addresses all of these barriers to solar deployment.

Alameda County, California, in collaboration with two local non-profit organizations, is facilitating wide-scale renewable energy adoption across a four-county area through a groundbreaking collaborative solar purchasing project among local public agencies. The Regional Renewable Energy Procurement Project (R-REP) is the largest multi-agency solar procurement project in the US. Beyond its size, R-REP incorporates extensive workforce development goals, along with several other improvements on previous approaches to collaborative purchasing. This case study provides an overview of the R-REP project, with an emphasis on best practices that can be used as a model by other public agencies and local governments.

“We want to highlight this project because it is impressive in its scale and scope, and because it is a different model than we have seen before,” said Warren Leon, CESA Executive Director. “R-REP represents a comprehensive approach to collaborative solar purchasing, and there is much to learn from it.”

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About Clean Energy States Alliance: Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing state and local efforts to implement smart clean energy policies, programs, technology innovation, and financing tools to drive increased investment and market making. CESA works with the leading state and public clean energy programs and provides information sharing and technical assistance to states and local governments on best-in-class clean energy programs and policies. CESA also facilitates collaborative networks to coordinate efforts between states, federal agencies, and other stakeholders to leverage accelerated progress on deploying clean energy projects and markets. For more information, visit http://www.cesa.org.